National Highway 1

Today we drove to Desallines--the first capital of Haiti. On the mountain that stretches above it there is a series of five forts built to watch for the return of Napoleans troops.

Most of our journey was along National Highway 1 which connects the two biggest cities--Port au Prince and Cape Hatien. It's about one and a half lanes, with no markings, and often no road. Four-wheel drive is a virtual neccessity to navigate certain stretches. Potholes that could swallow your car abound. Piles of garbage line the road outside cities. One famous thing about Haiti is its lack of trees. This country has attained the unique distinction of 98 percent deforestation. And there's not much hope for reforestation. Charcoal is the main fuel for most people--gas is prohibitively expensive to the 65-70 percent of Hatians who live on less than one dollar a day. Of course lots of other things are prohibitively expensive...meat...shelter not made out of dried mud...medicine...etc (it's a long list)

Two stories.

We stopped to talk to the gentlemen who work at a sawmill along the road...They had a huge log (maybe 8' long, 18" in diameter) up on some tall (7-8') homemade sawhorses. One guy was standing on the log, the other guy underneath and they were cutting the log into 8-10 boards with a two person saw. Push Pull, Push Pull. They said it took them about half a day to do each log.

We also stopped to talk to a woman who works in the construction business. Rocks, sticks and mud are the main materials for house construction. Cement blocks for the wealthy. Her job was to break up big rocks into little rocks of varying sizes to use un mud walls or cement mixing for roads. Essentially her job was to make gravel out of boulders....her tool? a hammer. All day, sitting on a pile of rocks banging at them with a hammer.